July 8th recap

We left the VMI at 10am so we could pick up some items for the baby home. We went to the baby store in the town of Artem and picked up 3 big bags of diapers and 6 traditional Russian toys. From there, we went to the market in a settlement outside of Artem to buy some fresh fruit. We picked up some apples, banana's and peers for the kiddos. If you ask my husband, he would tell you we looked at about 100 different types of apples at that market!

When we arrived at the baby home, we gave the items to the Director. She was very appreciative, and asked the Music Director to come out as well. She too was thrilled. It was nice to get that response.

They brought out the little guy soon after and he began to cry again. We decided to take him outside and walk around. He really seemed to like that! The Doctor arrived when we were outside and answered a few questions for us. We then decided it was too hot outside and made our way back into the gym. Poor little guy had on 3 layers of clothing, a hat, and 2 layers on his feet. He was burning up!

When we went back into the gym, he started to cry again and he continued this for some time. I realized that he had a fever (maybe from teething?) and we asked for something for him to drink. We were brought tea in a bottle, but he wasn't too interested. He just felt pretty rough. He did allow us to soothe him off and on. Again, it was the sweetest cry we had ever heard.

We went back to the VMI and checked our email for the Doctors response, as well as sent more video and updated information back. We had peanut butter and crackers and talked a lot. Still jet lagged, we went to sleep early.

July 7, 2009 - Meetcha Day!

Since we had just traveled through a time warp, we woke up very early this morning. We were excited about Meetcha Day, but also very, very cautious. We separated out toys for him and for other children (compliments of Aunt Carolyn - thanks!), and some snacks in hopes they would allow us to give him a treat or two.

At 10:45am, we met Vladimir the Driver, and Elana the Interpreter in the hotel lobby. On the way to the baby home, we spoke to Elana about what to expect. She explained the process, and it put us at ease. We pulled up to the baby home just before noon and went in to meet the Director. She was an energetic, upbeat lady that seemed very welcoming. We asked if we could bring some fruit and diapers during the week and she suggested we save some funds on fruit, and instead buy some traditional Russian toys for the children. She explained they were very short on these toys. Then.......we went down to meet the little guy.

They brought him out all dressed up for our visit. He was in a Gymboree outfit, with 2 layers of clothing underneath. He had on a little bear hat and lamb socks. He was beautiful. Then, they handed him to me.....

Luckily, Bill had the recorder going because this is a moment that was really cute. When I spoke to him, he looked at me in sheer disbelief and started crying. He buried his head in my chest and must have been able to pretend that this stranger went away - because he quit crying for a few seconds. He then raised his head up and looked at me (in disbelief) again, and started crying again! Poor little guy! It was the cutest cry ever! He did seem somewhat attached to his caregiver, which made us pretty happy. The caretaker came out of the room and took him from me and played with him for a minute. He calmed down and she handed him back to me. Of course, he started crying again! The caretaker came back out again and calmed him. She put him in a little car after he was content, and I kept pulling him closer to me, inch by inch - until he didn't seem afraid any longer. Bill would talk to him on and off and the little guy would bury his head in my chest, but didn't cry at the sound of a male voice.

The car trick worked, he finally let me hold him! We went to the gym because the visiting room smelled like paint. We put down some mats and he calmly sat with us and kept looking at us in disbelief. Occasionally he acted like he would cry, but seemed to really like to snuggle. Within 30 minutes he had warmed up to Bill and was making eye contact with him. By the end of our 1st visit, which ended up being 2 hours, he allowed us to carry him around and love on him.

We spoke to the Director, Social Worker, Caretaker and Neurologist on this day. We felt we had gathered enough information to send to our IA Doc when we got back to the hotel.

Leaving the baby home was sad. Our 2 hours flew by, but we had a lot to talk about.

July 6, 2009

We touched down in Vlad around 11:30am. After we claimed our luggage, we went outside where we found our Driver, Vladimir. I wanted to know right away if we had an appointment with the DOE and if we could also go to the baby home but he didn't seem to understand me. After we got into the van, he put Tonya (our agency rep) on the phone and she explained to use that we would go to the hotel and check in, then we would meet her to go to the DOE to receive formal permission to visit the little guy. It was too late in the day to visit the baby home so we were sad that we had to wait until the next day - but glad we could get the appointment with the DOE out of the way.

We checked into the Vladivostok Motor Inn, washed our hands and off we went to pick up Tonya and go to the DOE. The woman there asked us several questions. Did we have children? What experience do we have with children? Are we willing to accept a child with minor correctable issues? What is our child preference? Where did we work? What were our job titles? How would we take care of him after the adoption was final? Would he go to a babysitter, or would one of us stay at home with him? Did we have supportive family nearby? Finally, she gave her seal of approval and we signed a couple of documents and left. I have to admit, this part was a little stressful! We were told that we could see him from 12 -3 Tuesday - Friday at Artem. Our Driver was going to pick us up the next day at 10:45am.

After we got back to the VMI, we decided to eat at the hotel restaurant. We had pizza and a club sandwich. I didn't realize I had ordered a 16" pizza (oops), but it came in handy the next morning for breakfast! We went back to the room and fell asleep by 5pm, we were exhausted from the 13 hour time difference.

July 4th - July 6th. Traveling to Vlad

At 10:15am we were on a plane headed to Atlanta out of Tennessee (July 4th - our Independence Day). Our first flight was full, and uneventful. We had a 5 hr layover in Atlanta so we had lunch at TGI Fridays. We left Atlanta at 4:30pm to head to Moscow. This was another full flight, but an overall positive experience. The flight was 10 1/2 hours and we were able to rest a bit. When we landed in Moscow, we went through Passport Control and Immigration. It was as we had heard - long lines and pushy people. All our luggage arrived safely, and we were met by our driver, German, just outside the double glass doors.

We had decided to go directly to the other terminal and just wait out the 8 hr layover in the terminal, but German talked us into staying at the 3 star SVO for around $100 US. After we arrived at the hotel, German advised us he had a prior engagement and could not be available to take us to the airport. He drew a map and told us to get on the 6pm shuttle. We went to our room, laid down, and slept for 4 hrs straight. I really thought that our anxiety would be too high to sleep, but we were both out like a light. We woke up, showered and changed into nicer clothing in hopes we would get to see the DOE when we arrived into Vladivostok, as we still did not have a formal appointment time.

Funny side note! As we left our room, the Maid asked if we were 'Finnish'. Bill said, "no, we speak English". It was really funny because she wanted to know if we were finished with our room, not if we were from Finland! We both got a laugh out of that!

We made our way down to where the shuttle was, and the driver appeared after about 30 minutes. We told him we needed to be taken to the domestic terminal, and he looked at us like we had 2 heads. After we think we got our point across, we loaded up and were on our way. He dropped off another couple at an airport, and made them walk in because it was too busy to drive in (or at least that is what we understood), but he didn't tell us to get off the shuttle. We had no idea which airport this was, so we just stayed on. After a certain point, we wondered if we were on a tour bus to Red Square because we were thinking it was just 5 minutes away - but eventually, we were dropped off and went into the airport.

When we were finally in the airport, we looked at the flight information screens and it told us where to check in (1st in Russian, then in English). We went through the Security check point prior to checking in. They had blue footies and people were putting them on, so we just followed the crowd and it worked (when in Rome...)! We made it to the Aeroflot counter and the Attendant didn't seem to speak English, so we blindly handed her our passports in hopes she didn't send us to Korea. When she was placing the luggage stickers on our bags, she stopped abruptly and suddenly announced "no, over the weight limit". We both looked at each other in disbelief! How could this be? We weighed the bags at home and we were okay. I started to explain our situation (what Bill calls "argue"), and she smiled. It was a joke. I considered telling her that her joke wasn't funny, but I knew Bill would not have approved. We went up to the gate and waited.

During the wait, we decided we were hungry. We walked around to find some food and finally decided on something that was recognizable - a baked potato. Bill grabbed 2 waters out of the cooler and I ordered the potatoes. This was interesting, because she had no clue what I was saying, and I had no clue what she was saying. Finally, I just said 'da' to whatever she was offering. Luckily, she brought out a baked potato and kept wanting us to put fish topping on it. Bill finally acquiesced to a sausage, mustard, ham, and something creamy topping, and I agreed to something green and creamy. We sat down to eat and both liked the potato surprise. We were starved and thirsty. When I opened my water, I took a huge drink and started to choke. Water tried to come out of my nose! It was carbonated!! That was a surprise, and of course anything carbonated is a surprise when it starts to come out of your nose. Bill grabbed carbonated water instead of still water. This was funny moment #2 - well, at least Bill got a laugh out of it.


When Aeroflot loaded we were hoping we were on the right flight because they only announced it in Russian. We were thinking if they kicked us off, we were headed the wrong direction. After lots of pushing (LOTS of pushing), mass chaos, shuttle rides, more pushing and about 30 minutes, we were on our flight and seated. This was another full flight that was overall non eventful. My seat was broken and Bills TV monitor was frozen, but overall it was good. Some of the staff spoke a bit of English, and the Pilot 1st made announcements in Russian, then in English.

Just over 8 hours and we touch down in Vladivostok!

Another Pretzel Dog Incident!

I am in Miami this week with work, and I have been craving a Pretzel Dog since the 'learning incident' from last week. As a reminder, I went into the mall to get a Pretzel Dog and ran out to my car to eat it. I wasn't hanging on the the dog (just the dough part), and the dog fell out of the dough, and 'disappeared'. I assume its under my seat - but I still can't find it.

Anyway, today I saw an Einstein Bagel and remembered they had Pretzel Dogs. I was so excited! I went in, washed my hands and ordered the dog. The Cashier said they were out of Pretzel Dogs as far as she knew - but she would check. It was a blow I just simply couldn't handle. Finally, she came back with an excellent looking Pretzel Dog and said "this is the last regular one we have, want it?" Did I want it? Heck yeah I wanted it. I considered tackling her and taking it out of her hand right then and there (yeah, that's a joke - but I did really want it). I went to my seat and waited for my name to be called.

Okay, so my name was called. "Michelle, please come to the counter". WooHoo! I was on my way to Pretzel Dog Heaven. When I got to the counter, the guy said "I am really sorry, but I accidentally dropped your pretzel dog in the trash. I considered pulling it out and giving it to you anyway - do you still want it?" WHAT??? I told him that he ruined my entire day/week/month. Of course, no - I didn't want it so bad that I would eat it out of the trash can. Geez!!! He suggested I have a bag of chips (although he heard they were stale) instead. No thanks - I will pass on the stale chips and the trashed dog.

As I was walking out with my head down, the guy behind the counter yelled - "WAIT!". I went back and he said that he did have 1 Pretzel Dog, but it was an Asiago Cheese Pretzel Dog. He said I could have it instead.

Finally, I sat down with the last Asiago Cheese Pretzel Dog, a bag of (confirmed) stale chips, and a Coke. To be honest, it wasn't even that great - but I was happy :)

Gift from Jill

Today my friend Jill brought me a little outfit she picked up for our son. I thought this was awesome for several reasons. First of all, she isn't really a "baby person". Second of all, she has only known me since March and has really been supportive of our adoption, going above and beyond what anyone would expect a new friend to do.

So here it is! We both have Puggle dogs, so its of course a puppy theme! Thanks Jill - you re the best!

Adoption is where the baby grows in the Mommy's heart....

We wanted to share the neat Baby Shower announcements that Carolyn did for the shower the end of August. Aren't they cool?!?

Adoption is where the baby grows in the
Mommy's heart instead of her tummy

Thanks Carolyn! We are looking forward to the shower, and we appreciate you!!!!